fiscal conservatives are not fiscally responsible

Do show this i shall ask you a simple question then a scenario then ask you the same question again.  

Do you think tertiary education should be free and should there be incentive to for certain degrees?

scenario

A mate of mine just graduated from a 3 year bachelor of science. He will only have to pay half his HECS back, he is still about 15k in debt. He is now doing a 2 year masters in pharmacy and thanks to a commonwealth supported place he will only pay back 14k instead of 50k. He is struggling to find a place in Sydney within his small budget and if he doesn't find a place he will be commuting by train for about 4 hours a day.

So in total his education will cost bout 80k to the government and he will pay back 30k of it. More then some, less then most. The government will be out of pocket 50k, or is it.

The average sciencetist gets 90k to 100k a year. the min tax paid on 90k income is about 20k. So just within 3 years the government will be 10k in the black. Or will it....

My mate will pay for things, sell things and makes his employer money, all of which will be taxed through GST, business tax, etc. Plus, thanks to his Masters in Pharmacy he is almost guaranteed a job, so he will not be getting centerlink payments, so the government saves money. He might buy private healthcare, again saving the tax payer and the government money. So in fact the government could be in better off by 35k a year.

An investment of 80k could be making a return of 35k a year. Seems a bit crazy doesn't it. Well it is. We are forgetting a major investor in this degree. The degree holder. 4 subjects, 8 of studying a week for each. 3 months of uni a year, 3 years. At a small sum of $20 an hour, that's about $50 000 worth of work.

This 50k investment is free for the government and yet it still gets the return on it. Making 35k back from a total 130k investment on both the degree holder and the government. So within 3 years the government is making a profit. This means that they will have more money to spend on roads, hospitals, defence or Medicare or they can lower the tax for everyone.

So

Do you think tertiary education should be free and should there be incentive to for certain degrees?

what should a government do?

Someone asked me for the 1st time, 'what should the (federal) government do?' I have thought about it before that question, a lot. But i have never tried to sum up all of my opinion into a few general statements. I'm not 100% sure of what i said, and I'm not 100% if it made much sense.

So I thought about it some more and i think i worked out what i think (good sentence structure then). So. What should the Government do.

My answer is 'The Government should allow and encourage and give the ability all citizens to be and do what ever they want.'

So that is pretty open to interpretation. I am left of the center (further then most), social progressive and fiscally responsible (very different to a fiscal Conservative) So know we have a better idea of what that sence means to me.

I think one needs to look at how the government should play a part in the economy. So lets look as two different types of economies, Capitalism and socialism, both have great features and terrible features.

Great things about capitalism, I can get a flight for $30, a flat screen TV for a few hundred dollars and The Office. Bad things about pure capitalism, people born in to a low income family don't have the same opportunities in education or healthcare, workers can get screwed over for a profit, tv ads.

Great things about socialism, low homelessness, free healthcare and free education. Bad things about pure socialism, possible centralization, possible poor business models that create unprofitable goods or services that are propped up by tax payer money, making people trying to run companies compete with tax payer propped up state owned companies.

So it seems pretty clear to me, why not take the best part from each system.


Why do this?

If you limit someones possible future earning capacity just because of the income of their parents, then lots of possible future taxable income to the government will be lost and your also limiting the possible future consumer market.

So if you insure that there is no limitations placed on person because of who they were born to then you increase the money available to the government through taxes and to the private sector through their ability to consume and most importantly, you improve that persons standard of living and allowing them to do and be what they want.

So then how can we insure that someones possible future earning capacity is not limited by the income of their family?

-By making sure that the can live in a house, that they can eat healthy food and live reasonably comfortable no matter what the income of there house is (this is wealthfare).
-To make sure that people can get the best education in the field they want for free (free education).
-To make sure that no one has to worry about medical expensive, everyone should have the best healthcare that is available (free optical, dental and medical care)
-To make sure that if a person cannot afford formof personal transport, that their education or area of work is not limited because of this. (free public transportation).

So, if you make sure people are educated, healthy, can travel to and from work or school and can live a reasonably life then i think you are allowing them to be and do what they want.



So why cant a private company charge per user for something like public transportation without any funding from the government? Because something like a private company cannot make a profit from it without disadvantaging certain people that require that service or good to live a comfortable life.

The government can make a long term profit from something like public transportation or public education or public healthcare through taxes off the people that use it. If someone uses the train to get to uni, they maybe not be able to pay the actual cost of them riding the train at this point of their life. However, the money they will earn from going to uni will be greater then if they didn't go and, the tax on their income will be greater then the sum of all the times the caught the bus.

This is very easily seen in free public education, where people cannot pay for they education until they have an education. Which means that private non-government funded education would and does disadvantage certain people, those that family cannot afford it. Thus limiting that persons ability to learn what they want, get the job they want and do what they want. Also lowering their future income. This will  increase their possible future dependence on the government and decreases the amount of future tax they will pay to the government and decrease their future consumeability.

People as me, 'Mitchell, why i joined the greens'. Mostly it's asked politely. Most ask if its cuz i love the environment (I assume that it's cuz they think the Greens are a one policy party) or if i am trying to score a hippy chick. Both those things arn't true, mostly.

It was the 2010 General election and it was the 1st time I could vote. So i was pretty excited to be part of democracy. My plan was to make an informed decisions, just like i thought, everyone else did. I wanted to make sure the party that i voted for was closest as possible to what i believed.

I understood what left and right wing politics was, and what it meant to be a conservatives or a progressives.  I understood that right wing governments liked to sell off state assets, spend little money and run the country for short term profits. I understood left wing government liked to spend money, build state assets, raise taxes and invest money for longer term profits. I understood conservatives to be stuck in ways were no old problems or no inequalities are solved. Which i always thought was crazy, why would anyone ever thing, 'this is as good as it gets'. And i understood progressives to be small 'l' liberals, to tolerant and to want to change laws to make people more equal.

I was aware of what the Liberal party stood for, and was almost certain that i would not vote for them, however, as not to be prejudice i did look up there policies (which is hard to do when they don't release them). It was not hard for me to cross liberals off my list.

So it was ALP or The Greens. I was was horrified, and still am, over the treatment of refugees that arrive here via boat. I also think that a secular nation is the only right type of nation, and to say that current marriage laws are secular is flat out retarded. So when i found out that The Greens also thought that way i did, i thought, well damn, that's great, I'll vote for them.

So i told my gf at the time why i think The Greens are the party that i will be voting for. She then signed up on The Greens website to help out on election day. She got a phone call and was asked to hand out HTV. I said i would come along to help her.

So i thought, if im handing out for this party, i better make sure it's not something i will later regretted. So i looked up more policies. Not all i agreed with, and there are still a few that i don't agree with, but they are somewhat unimportant when compared to where the party is going and where politics in general is going. But almost all i agree with.

So i spent the day handing out, rejection is something you got to learn fast when you hand out for The Greens.  It wasn't a bad day at all, i spend it with my then gf and i also met some very nice people.

At the end of the day i went to the election after party and met the illawarra greens, and omg, they are so nice. I talked to many of them and found out more about how the party operates and how each member has equal power and rights in the party, and that anyone can have there say, and can be heard. So i thought, what the hell I think i should be part of this. So i filled in the membership form.

So it turns out i have very little interesting to write about. I can think of things, but i don't think my views are original or different from many other people. But i might still write them out

So i started

So i started a blog. I never thought that anyone would ever read what i blog and i am still pretty sure that no one will. I don't think what i have to say will interested many people if any. Why, my sister just made fun of me for starting a blog,

I Think what i will do here is write about two things. 1stly i will write about things that i have done that i think are note worthy. and 2ndly, when i have a strong opinion on a current event.

Well, here i go, i can now use the term blogger when describing myself, though i doubt i ever will. If you read more then one post your a champ.